Worst Beatles Single

Well, I don't find it to be intolerable or anything, & yeah, it does have a few nice hooks (Paul's "She Loves You" coda definitely), but the mantra-like schmaltz, combined with my reasons above, made this poll choice a no-brainer for me.

"See, for me, AYNIL (anal!) is symbolic of shallow 60's "utopianin" ideals, mistaken at the time for actual political radicalism, but mostly used as an excuse for hedonistic indulgence (not that theres anything wrong with that, but jeez just call it what it is)."

uh, dude, it's not utoptian nor hedonistic indulgence. love is one of the only things totally actually fucking essential to human survival (food and water would be the other two, obvs, but how lame of a lyric would that make: "all you need is water and food and love"?). john lennon was just stating an ever-so-slightly exaggerated fact.

also: lady madonna = sublime's "what i got." has anyone else ever noticed this?

in every beatles thread on ILM, at least

OK, so I take it the winner here is just another pathetic "I hate hippies and baby boomers"-demonstration from a number of people then?

all you need is love is great

You Know My Name (Look Up the Number) is great.

OK, so I take it the winner here is just another pathetic "I hate hippies and baby boomers"-demonstration from a number of people then?

― Geir Hongro, Wednesday, January 21, 2009 9:33 AM Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

For me, AYNIL has a fine sentiment but just a crap performance, it sounds like someone turned the speed down on the master tape. Just too sluggish and evaporated.

Yes, it's biggest crime is it's plod plod ploddiness, it's the quintessence of plod

Vicious Cop Kills Gentle Fool
leaves behind a ball of wool
but he don't mind
he's a cop and he knows cops aint kind...

Yellow

Should have counted US singles, in which case 'The Long and Winding Road' is definitely the winner of this.

i'm appalled and kinda disgusted that five people voted for "please please me."

yeah that's insane.

j&y is great, you are all gay

Paul's "She Loves You" coda definitely

um that's John

also: lady madonna = sublime's "what i got." has anyone else ever noticed this?

yes and I found it really annoying

Paul's "She Loves You" coda definitely

um that's John

Well . . . A great deal of energy expended at that link arguing that it's both of them.

oh whatever - every account I've ever read has noted that it was John, most recently the Spitz bio. and it sure sounds like John. and it looks like him singing it in the Compleat Beatles etc.

I like how this poll isn't an exact flip of the best Beatles Single Poll

Didn't Strawberry Fields and Penny Lane win that one? Help/I Am Down was up there
whoever voted for Strawberry Fields in this poll should be banned.

oh whatever - every account I've ever read has noted that it was John, most recently the Spitz bio. and it sure sounds like John. and it looks like him singing it in the Compleat Beatles etc.

I'm pretty sure I saw a video of this song, and Paul was the one saying it. No?

you are wrong

towards the end

how did you produce this fraudulent video?

ballad o' j&y/ old brown shoe hate is cRaZy

― now is the time to winterize your manscape (will), Tuesday, January 20, 2009 11:12 AM (2 days ago)

whoever voted for Strawberry Fields in this poll should be banned.
My thoughts exactly. But not because they are so wrong, but because they are so very wrongheaded. That's like saying "sunshine and green grass aren't really my thing."

^Obv. RITH cop, I'll 'fess.

Strawberry Fields Forever isn't the worst Beatles song but it is so massively overrated that I contemplated voting for it just because.

i feel good about my vote for Love me Do/PS I Love you because Love me Do is my least fav of the early iconic beatles tunes and frankly PS I Love You is the rare beatles song where i'm just like "dag dude that's just some bullshit even if it were by herman's hermits or some shit"

xpost MPP: That's exactly the kind of thinking that makes a ass out of you and you.

re the video:

They had already recorded the track for the most part. The lead vocal was most likely live, the fadeout funnies possibly not.

So, John could have sung the "She loves you" bit, and Paul mime it on the broadcast. Or vice versa.

Anyway, it's John singing "Yesterday" just before it.

Anyway, I used to dislike AYNIL, until I got a version which carries on past the fade, and you hear someone playing the intro right at the fade (The Marseilles, or however you spell it) on the guitar reeeeeealy badly!

My vote is probably for the labored, wheezy Blueshammer warmup of "Get Back"/"Don't Let Me Down," but I'm going to sleep on it because I know there are times when I've liked both songs more than I do now. "Love Me Do" is at least fun to sing along to.

― Doctor Casino, Saturday, January 3, 2009 7:29 PM Bookmark

wow, I have no memory of even starting this poll, let alone thinking this. Really got won over to "Don't Let Me Down" about a year after writing that, I knew a few people for whom it was a karaoke staple and surprisingly it had a real electrical connection with the audience, everybody just belting their guts out on the chorus. There's something really ragged and desperate and longing about it that I maybe "get" more now. Could also just be getting older, etc.

I realize it's silly to start questioning specific results--if you vote, you have to vote for something, and anything you vote for will engender strong disagreement from someone; it's the Beatles--but the three that most make me go "Huh?" are "Ticket to Ride/Yes It Is," "I Feel Fine/She's a Woman," and "Paperback Writer/Rain," all of which got 4 or 5 votes. I think of the first and third as two of the greatest two-sided singles ever. I would have voted for something late, although I'd have to relisten to a couple of the non-album B-sides to be sure.

Feel sad for Baby You're A Rich Man, which I love, being stuck with that platitudinous tv show turd.

xp otm re: Paperback Writer/Rain - sure, there's no accounting for subjectivity, but christ wtf ppl?

Hey ILM, leave that crack alone. These results SUCK

The long and winding snooze

Lady Madonna is terrible. Terrible, terrible, terrible.

"Lady Madonna" clicked for me in a big way in just the last year or so, awesome song

All You Need Is Love is one

of the greatest songs ever. (thanks iPhone/bumpy car ride)

i like johns vocals on the verses of AYNIS. the brass arrangement is kinda rough though.

aynil haha

quite an acronym

all you need is stuff (everybody!)

Amazed "Hello Goodbye" didn't 'win' this easy...

Day Tripper & We Can Work It Out 1

i must have been the one to vote for this one because i still hate both of these songs!

How anyone could hate We Can Work It Out is beyond comprehension.

I see I said the same thing 3 years ago.

if someone were to present that song to me i would just dump them -- "try to see it my way"?? "life is very short" ?? if that's all you got i don't even know